John Gaceer
Cite this Page
"John Gaceer," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/9.
- Position
- Coachman
- Years in President's House
- 1792 – circa 1796
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- George Washington
- Biography
- Information about John Gaceer’s life outside of the President’s House remains unknown. John began working for President George Washington at the President’s House in Philadelphia in 1792. He is occasionally referred to as “Dutch John” or “Fritz,” suggesting he may have been of Dutch or German descent.1 He worked as a coachman, earning between $10.00 and $14.00 per month. He continued to appear in household records until September 1796.2
- Stephen Decatur, Jr., Private Affairs of George Washington, from the records and accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, his secretary, (New York: De Capo Press, 1969), 253.
- “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793-1797,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 29, No. 4 (1905), 400; https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20085306.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default:91eb922c9fb2e34b038cc6b9a74d2c73&ab_segments=&initiator=&acceptTC=1; “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793-1797 (continued)," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 31, No. 1 (1907), 72; https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20085371.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default:97d1606ae6dc5356bc621d4039790628&ab_segments=&initiator=recommender&acceptTC=1.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Unclear from Context
- Related Worker
- ParisTransportation, 1789 – 1791